The Spirit Trap
by MACRA
Summary: Shortly after the appearance of a strange blue box in Republic City, spirits start vanishing from both the Human and Spirit Realms. Who is the mysterious Doctor, and will he help Team Avatar against this latest threat to the balance of the two Realms? On Hiatus.
1. A Pleasant Day in the Park

**Author's note:** I assume that most people reading this will be familiar with both Legend of Korra and Doctor Who and with the characters that have appeared in the TV shows. However, many of you may not be familiar with the character of Constance Clarke. Constance is a companion for the Sixth Doctor from the full cast audio adventures produced by Big Finish. Constance was stationed at Bletchley Park in World War II, holding the rank of Leading Wren. She is married to Henry Clarke, a naval intelligence officer missing in mysterious circumstances. The character is performed by the amazing Miranda Raison.

Continuity: For Legend of Korra, the events in this story take place a bit more than a year after the conclusion of Book 4. For Doctor Who, they take place several weeks to a few months after the events in the audio adventure "The End of the Line" from the box set "The Last Adventure."

* * *

With its usual tortured wheezing and groaning, the TARDIS materialized in a previously tranquil public park. The door was flung open, and the Doctor strode out, his multi-colored coat flapping behind him. He breathed deeply and placed his hands on his hips with a satisfied air. "There you are, Mrs. Clarke. As promised, back in our home dimension."

Constance Clarke followed him out of the time machine and looked around with a slightly more appraising eye. "Are you quite certain about that, Doctor?"

"Certain? Certain!? CERTAIN?" He whirled round and faced her with a look of great indignation on his face. "I'll have you know that I triple checked every aspect of the calculation. I have been meticulously gathering data on the structure of the multiverse over a series of carefully planned cross-dimensional hops. I have cross referenced the results against the extensive records on our own universe from the TARDIS information core. Of course I'm certain!" He huffed.

Constance folded her arms and raised her eyebrows sardonically at this tirade. "Be that as it may, I have noticed one or two things that don't seem entirely consistent."

"Oh, have you indeed? You can tell we are in another dimension just by looking around, can you? Where is this evidence of yours, then?"

"Well, for a start there's those creatures." She pointed at a nearby pond. Several animals that looked like ducks with turtle shells were swimming near the shore, quacking happily.

The Doctor sniffed. "Convergent evolution could easily account for that. Or genetic engineers with too much time on their hands. Unusual, perhaps, but hardly uncanny enough to warrant casting aspersions on my navigation."

"And how about that?" Constance pointed to the edge of the park.

"An automobile with decorations like a Chinese pagoda? Does that really seem so far beyond the realms of probability?"

"I meant the buildings behind it," Constance answered with a touch of impatience. They looked a fairly ordinary collection of urban row houses, except that half of the windows had thick green vines growing out of them.

"It could just indicate an admirable sympathy between the residents and the local ecosystem," the Doctor insisted stubbornly. As they looked on, a translucent blue creature that looked something like a cat with dragonfly wings alighted on one vine. An elderly woman opened a nearby window, leaned out and appeared to start gossiping with it. "Planets peacefully settled by multiple intelligent species are not unheard of," the Doctor continued weakly.

Constance cleared her throat and pointed silently toward the heart of the city. A shaft of amber light rose above the skyscrapers and up to pierce the sky. Creatures in a variety of strange shapes flew around it. Quite large creatures, given the distance involved. Now and then one would fly into the beam and disappear, or another would burst forth with droplets of light trailing behind it.

The Doctor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It may be necessary to check the data one last time."

"Never mind, Doctor," Constance said. "It seems quite pleasant here. After all, there's no sign of carnivorous plants, killer robots, or oobleck."

The Doctor scowled at her. "It's not necessary to bring up every unpleasant thing we've encountered since getting trapped in the dimensional junction."

"I wasn't going to. I thought those three a sufficiently representative sample."

The Doctor harrumphed. He turned back to the TARDIS to shut and lock the door. "Let's not stand around here thinking gloomy thoughts. It's a lovely day for a walk in the park. Come along, Mrs. Clarke." He strode off.

A slight smile played across Constance's face as she followed. "Certainly, Doctor."

As they walked away, a lean form emerged from a nearby bush and approached the TARDIS. After circling twice it passed through the walls of the blue box as if they weren't there.


	2. Not Punch and Judy

The park was lovely and extensive. Constance thought it likely that it was larger than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens combined. They made their way along a path that ran next to a string of ponds of increasing size, each connected to the last by a stream. It finally culminated in a small lake where people were riding in boats made to look like the odd duck-turtle-things. There were fewer trees and bushes from that point onward, the park opening into a large green with people picnicking and playing games.

Not far from the lake there was an impressive statue of a woman, posed with one foot resting on a carved boulder, a look of profound determination on her face. Curious, they walked over to examine it. "Avatar Korra," Constance read from a plaque at the base. "A religious figure, do you think?"

"Seems more likely than a monument to videogame persona," the Doctor said cryptically. "Puts me in mind of Jeanne d'Arc."

"You knew her, I suppose," Constance said dryly.

"Only saw her once from a distance. At her execution," he added sadly. "Yet she had that same look, like nothing could stand in her way." Constance looked up, hoping for a happier end for the statue's subject. "A touch ostentatious," the Doctor remarked, somewhat spoiling the moment.

"Well, I like it better than Nelson's Column," Constance replied. Somewhat surprisingly, the Doctor didn't challenge this view. They walked on further through the park.

As they passed among a collection of food carts, Constance was reminded that, at least according to her body, it was around lunchtime. She glanced at the sun and then at the brisk business being done around them. Perhaps it was lunchtime for the locals as well.

The Doctor caught her looking longingly at some sort of savory steamed dumplings. "Fancy a bite to eat?"

She gave him a skeptical look. "Surely you don't have any local currency. I can wait until we get back to the TARDIS."

The Doctor, however, was getting a determined gleam in his eye. "Nonsense. I have a plan." Constance looked at him in alarm. The soundness of the Doctor's plans seemed to be in direct proportion to the stakes of success or failure. Trying to avoid a lunch from the food machine was likely to result in a profoundly unsound plan. However, before she could stop him he had bustled off to accost a young man performing tricks with a wooden top for a small audience.

Whatever the man said to the Doctor seemed to satisfy him. He came back to Constance. "Wait for me, oh, how about by that fountain? I need to fetch something from the TARDIS." And he was off again.

"If you're going back there anyway…" she started, but he was off like a shot. "Why don't we both go back and just have lunch there?" she continued to herself. Well, she wasn't about to engage in a foot race to keep up with him. She sighed and walked to the fountain. She plumped herself on a bench and passed the time by watching the people.

* * *

The Doctor came back, bearing a bulky valise. "Have you been messing about in Storage Room 3?" he asked, sounding testy. "It took me an age to find this."

Constance glanced at her watch. Twenty minutes had passed since the Doctor had left her. Given the likely walking time, "an age" apparently meant five minutes. "I've never even been in Storage Room 3. The lowest number I've seen is 78. And I would have liked to give it a good tidying up, but you've made it clear how much that annoys you." The Doctor harrumphed, set down the case, and opened it up. "What on Earth is this all about?" she asked.

"From my informant with the top, I have learned that the attitude toward street performance here is nicely relaxed. No licenses required by the local government. No performers guilds, official or otherwise, likely to show up and complain that you're working on 'their patch.'" He started pulling the pieces of what appeared to be a puppet stand out of the valise, which seemed to share the TARDIS's ability to contain far more than the exterior suggested.

Constance looked dubiously at the operation. "Punch and Judy?" she asked, unable to keep the dislike out of her voice.

"Not a fan? Don't worry, neither am I. Too mean spirited for my tastes. No aside from the stand itself, the only things I have left from the original set are the Crocodile and the swazzle."

Constance suspected she would regret asking. "The swazzle?"

He took something out of the case and put it in his mouth. "It's the thing the Professor uses to sound like Punch," he said in the squeaking buzzing tones of the character.

She closed her eyes. "Please. Just don't."

The Doctor removed the device with a shrug. "Anyway, most of the set was a gift from Jim Henson." He paused, probably waiting for her to say "Who?" She arched an eyebrow and waited patiently, resolving to look it up later for herself. The Doctor gave up first. "Anyway, the puppets are designed so you can change the appearance easily on the fly, which is crucial for my purposes." He held up a puppet with a fuzzy green melon shaped head. It had big eyes and a big orange nose. He pressed a tuft of dark hair against its chin and suddenly it had a goatee. "You see?" he said triumphantly.

"You're going to put on a puppet show. For money." Definitely unsound.

"I am. And you, Mrs. Clarke, are going to assist me." Constance closed her eyes. The dumplings would have to be particularly delicious to be worth all this trouble.


	3. Show Business

Constance looked at the words on the card the Doctor had handed her in shock. "You cannot possibly be serious."

He affected a theatrically hurt look. "Mrs. Clarke. You act as if you have no confidence in my abilities as a story-teller."

"You don't know any of their stories," she hissed. "Punch and Judy would be bad enough, but at least then I'd know that you actually had a script to work from. This is nothing short of insane."

The Doctor patted her shoulder reassuringly. "Excellent," he whispered. "Hold on to that attitude, and everything will go according to plan." Without waiting for a reply he dove under the coverings of the puppet show stand. She stared after him.

She looked around her. A couple of children had already wandered over from one of the nearby picnics and were gathered around hopefully. Parents hovered nearby talking among themselves, fortunately not paying her much attention. Two young women sat on a nearby bench, eating ice cream cones and looking on curiously.

"In your own time, Mrs. Clarke," the Doctor's voice boomed out. He was affecting an exaggerated Blackpool accent. His tone was testy, which had better be an act, she thought.

She gave the puppet show booth one final glare before addressing the small group. "Doctor John Smith is proud to present," she began and then glanced at the card before continuing, "for your Education and Entertainment…"

"Edutainment," the Doctor's voice boomed out.

Constance closed her eyes for a moment, but otherwise did not acknowledge the interjection. A small girl near the front giggled. "…For your Education and Entertainment," she repeated, raising her voice, "the stories of many lands." She took a final deep breath before uttering the sentence that bothered her the most. "He is pleased to accept requests from the audience on these your favorite tales."

More children had coming running up when she had started to speak, and now several small hands shot in the air. With a great sense of trepidation, Constance pointed at the boy who had managed to raise his first. "Can we hear about how Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai?" There were appreciative "oohs" from some of the other children. The parents were starting to pay more attention now, and one of the young ladies jumped up off the bench to come closer, grabbing her friend by the hand and dragging her along.

"Avatar Ing?" the Doctor's voice called out. Constance winced. _By all means, let's start by messing up the name of what might be an important religious figure._

The children seemed undismayed, however, and chorused out "No!" with some giggling.

"Avatar Ong?"

"NO!" There was considerably more giggling.

Constance saw the Doctor's plan now. She couldn't quite believe he'd be able to pull it off, but so far the audience seemed to enjoy the incompetent storyteller act. "I believe the young man said 'Avatar Aang,'" she said in the direction of the puppet stand.

"YES!" cried the children.

"Oh, Avatar _Aang_. Why didn't you say so?" A puppet with a large bushy beard and horn rimmed glasses appeared in the puppet stage. "Hi Kids, I'm Avatar Aang," the Doctor said in a deep voice. It was greeted by more cries of "No" and laughter. The puppet that replaced it had a dress and pig-tails. "I'm Avatar Aang?" he said, this time in falsetto, prompting another spirited denial. Up popped the crocodile from Punch and Judy. The audience didn't wait this time for him to speak before giving a final hearty "NO!"

Some of the parents looked uncertain as to whether all this was in good taste, but others had joined their children in the shouts at the stage. More grown-ups not obviously associated with any children had joined the crowd, and the young woman who had been the more enthusiastic about watching was leaning on her friend's shoulder, face red with hilarity.

Under the cover of the laughter, the Doctor whispered to her, "Now ask the audience to help me out."

"As Doctor Smith seems to be somewhat confused," she began.

"I am not," the Doctor protested in a querulous voice.

Constance kicked the side of the puppet booth. "Perhaps a volunteer for the audience would … remind him of exactly who Avatar Aang was." She was actually starting to enjoy herself, but said the last part through clenched teeth to help maintain the pretense. Hands shot up again, and a volunteer was selected.

The Doctor popped his head up through the proscenium arch of the stand and looked at the little girl who had come up. "Hello, young lady. Who were we talking about again?"

She giggled. "Avatar Aang. He was an Airbender."

Constance was wondering if the TARDIS translation circuit had slipped a gear, but the Doctor just said, "Was he? That's a coincidence. I'm an air bender too." This drew quite a reaction from the audience. They seemed more curious than upset, but Constance felt her trepidations return. She gave the Doctor a _what-are-you-doing_ glare.

Unperturbed he pulled a balloon out of a pocket and inflated it. It expanded into a long sausage shape. After tying it off he started twisting it into something animal shaped. He handed it to the girl. "There you go, young lady. Some bent air of your very own." To Constance's great relief, most of the audience laughed.

"No, Silly!" the girl said with a lot of giggling. "An airbender can make the air move." She waved her hands and made whooshing noises. "They can make the wind blow, and ride around on airscooters, and…" A rather fanciful sounding litany followed. The audience did not seem to find anything strange about anything she was saying.

"Gosh, that sounds handy," the Doctor remarked once her explanation had wound down.

She nodded very seriously. "And because he was the Avatar, he was also a waterbender and an earthbender and a firebender."

"Was he indeed?" the Doctor answered. Constance fancied he sounded a little dazed by this turn of information. She certainly was.

* * *

The story of how Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai was not a short one. The children had loved watching the puppets get their appearance changed to more or less match the actual people involved. Which was a good thing, because there were apparently a lot of them. Just about every puppet the Doctor possessed had ended up being part of the story, including the crocodile, which got to stand in for the Avatar's flying bison. A lot of balloon animals had been distributed to volunteers from the audience who had come up to keep the story moving.

The takings, however, looked promising. A lot of people had dropped money into the Doctor's valise, and many of them had given bills instead of coins.

"It never fails," the Doctor said. "If you're only bad enough that they think you're trying to be good, they'll never forgive you. But if you're so bad that there is no possible way for you not to realize it and you're doing it anyway, they'll love you."

Constance nodded, then said "Does this mean we can finally eat?"


	4. Telephones and Locks

Korra and Asami walked through the park, enjoying a quiet day together. Korra was still giggling. "You really enjoyed that puppet show," Asami observed, smiling.

"I gotta write Katara about it," Korra said. "She'll get a kick out of it. Particularly the bit about the mustache."

"What do you think Tenzin would think?" Asami said.

"Spirits, he'd probably pop a blood vessel. No way I'm telling him. Kya and Bumi, maybe."

Asami chuckled. The two walked on in silence for a little way. As they rounded a bend in the path, they saw a familiar figure. "Isn't that Mako?" Korra asked.

Asami nodded. "Yeah. Have you ever seen that blue hut that he's looking at before?" she sounded puzzled.

"Well, since you mention it, no. But it's been a while since I've been down at this end of the park." Korra frowned in puzzlement for a moment and then shrugged. She started waving and called out "Hey, Mako!"

Their friend stopped staring at the blue hut and turned their way. He waved back and started toward them. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Just enjoying the weather together," Asami said.

Korra narrowed her eyes. "Are you working? On a weekend?" Even though he wasn't in the uniform division, Mako always looked a bit more button down when he was on duty.

He shrugged. "Someone has to. For the next month or so, I'm one of the someones. It's better than night shift. Actually, Asami, I'm particularly glad to run into you. I wanted to ask you about this … thing." He gestured at the hut.

Asami had already started looking over the structure. "'Police Public Call Box'" she read, looking at the sign over the door. She turned to Mako with a big smile on her face. "I think it's a great idea."

"You do?" Mako seemed baffled by this reaction.

Asami apparently didn't notice his confusion. "Sure. It sounds like a nice simple way to improve public access to the police. We'd need to study the best way to distribute them. Maybe a small pilot program to test out the sort of usage your likely to get. You might need to put more telephone operators on, depending on the call volume."

"I don't think…" Mako began. Korra made a shushing motion. She could recognize that Asami was going into full on engineer mode, which was always entertaining to watch.

"The color is a good choice for day time. You don't see this shade of blue that much, so it'll stand out. I'm less certain about nighttime. I mean, sure, it's got the lamp on top. Good idea, but you want it to stay visible even if the bulb burns out." She was walking around the box as she spoke. Korra felt as if she should be taking notes. Except Asami would probably remember everything without difficulty. "It would be a shame to lose the color. Maybe make the window frosting reflective."

She came back to the front and pulled on a handle that was attached to a sign on the door. The sign swung open, revealing a telephone bolted to its interior surface. "Oh, that's nice. Someone put some thought into this."

"They did?" Mako looked at Korra as if asking for help. She just grinned and shrugged.

"Most public phones are placed higher than this one." Asami held her hands up in demonstration. "Fine for adults, but not so good for children. This is still high enough that adults won't have to hunch over to use it, but low enough that most children old enough to use a phone should also be able to reach."

"Oh. Good." Mako said weekly.

"Nice sturdy hinges. Good strain relief on the phone cord. Should hold up well to a lot of opening and closing. Who made your prototype?"

"It's not ours," Mako said, seizing his opportunity. "That's why I wanted to talk to you. Since Future Industries still has a lot of contracts with the city, I was wondering if this was a project that came from the President's office or the council or something without anyone actually telling the police."

Asami turned to stare at him. "If it is, they're not using Future Industries for it. And I'd never do a project like this without consulting the people who would actually be using it." She sounded a little affronted at the suggestion. Mako looked abashed.

"So hang on a sec," Korra broke in. "If the police force doesn't know anything about this thing, what brought you out here?"

Mako scowled. "We've been getting complaint calls for the past hour or so. People are upset that the phone isn't connected."

"Well of course it isn't connected." Asami pulled the receiver off the hook and brandished it for emphasis. "There aren't any phone lines under this section of the park to connect it to."

"Uh, Sweetest?" Korra said. "I think the average Republic City citizen lacks your extensive infrastructure knowledge."

Asami blushed a bit and laughed. "I suppose not." She grasped the other handle on the doors of the box and rattled them. "I wonder what's inside it."

"So what are you gonna do with it?" Korra asked Mako.

"Well, we can't leave it here. I'll have to get a crew in to get it moved."

"I still think it would be a good idea for the department to get some of these of their own," Asami said, sounding a trifle distracted.

Mako glanced at her and did a double take. Korra followed his gaze. Asami was kneeling before the lock on the door, probing at it with some fine metal tools. "Is that a lock pick set?" he said.

"Don't be such a cop, Mako." Korra poked him in the ribs. "She was probably taking locks apart to see how they work when she was Twelve."

"Eight," Asami corrected her, still sounding like her mind was only half on the conversation. "Dad started designing locks for me to figure out. He'd install them on doors in the house and put a surprise in the room. If I could get it open, I'd get the gift. The game was really the main thing though."

It was nice to hear her talk about her father without any anger or bitterness, just a bit of wistfulness. Korra glanced at Mako. He had a sympathetic half smile on his face. Neither of them broke in on the memory.

Asami huffed and sat back on her haunches, frowning. "He'd have been proud to come up with this one. I can't make head or tail of it. It's a work of art." There was a click, and the door of the box swung inward with a creak.

"I guess you had a better handle on it than you thought?" Korra said hesitantly.

Asami shook her head. "No. I didn't get anything to even budge. It just opened on it's own." She stood up and moved to the door.

Mako and Korra exchanged worried glances. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mako asked, but Asami was already passing through the door. The interior of the box was strangely dark and she disappeared from view.

"Asami?" Korra called, feeling distinctly worried.

Asami's voice floated out of the box, her tone laced with wonder. "Oh…my…Spirits."


	5. The Room of Moons

Korra and Mako both pushed through the door in a rush, almost colliding with each other. Asami had not sounded frightened, but there was still something unsettling about her disappearance into such a small structure.

"Small" did not describe what they found through the doorway.

They found themselves with Asami in a large, white room. The double doorway they had passed through was by itself wider than the blue box they had entered, and those doors only took up part of one of the six walls of the chamber. Most of the walls were covered with round panels that glowed with a gentle white light, like dozens of moons. The center of the room was occupied by something that looked like a cross between an altar and an airship control panel.

Asami stood near the altar thing, turning slowly to take the whole room in, a rapt grin spreading across her face. "Isn't it amazing?" she said.

Korra closed her gaping mouth and swallowed a touch nervously. "Amazing is definitely one word for it." She looked at Mako. He was still standing and staring, apparently not yet capable of speech.

"I wonder if it's a spirit portal," Asami said thoughtfully.

That seemed to break through to Mako. "What?" he asked.

Asami gestured around the room. "Well, the room is too small to fit in the box, so we've clearly been transported somewhere else. A spirit portal is the only thing I know of that could do that, but I don't like to make assumptions."

"Wouldn't that make this the Spirit Realm?" Mako asked. "This doesn't look like the sort of place I'd expect to find there."

Korra found both Mako and Asami looking at her curiously. She frowned and closed her eyes. "It doesn't feel like the Spirit Realm, but…" She turned in place her eyes still shut. "There's something. You know how the Spirit Realm is alive in a way the natural world isn't? There's always this presence in the background. The spirit of the land itself. This place, there's something similar." She opened her eyes. Now that she was attuned to it, it was impossible to miss. And now that she had spoken of it, there was a definite sensation that its attention was now on her. "Similar but stronger. More individual. It… no, _she_." Korra felt the note of discord in her head change to one of approval as she made the correction. "She definitely has a mind of her own."

Asami ran a hand along the edge of the control altar. "She," she repeated in a wondering voice.

"She?" Mako sounded more skeptical. Korra's own flash of annoyance was echoed in her head by the spirit of the place.

"That's how she thinks of herself," Korra said. "And it might be a good idea to not annoy her while you're standing inside of her." Mako held up his hands in surrender and looked around nervously.

Asami seemed more fascinated than worried. "So she's the spirit of the place itself, not an inhabitant?"

"Think so." Korra concentrated on the feeling of the thoughts coming to her and grinned. "I think she likes you," she said to Asami.

Asami's cheeks colored slightly. "Don't tease," she said, although without rancor.

"No, I'm serious," Korra said. "I think that might be why she let us inside." She cocked her head, trying to make sense of the feelings coming at her. "Or it's part of the reason. Something she's hoping we can help with? Something…"

Her train of thought was interrupted by a voice from the doorway bellowing "What are you doing in my ship?"


End file.
